Homily for the Ordination of Isaac McCracken to the Transitional Diaconate

Solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary

March 19, 2024
Saint Maria Goretti Catholic Church
Arlington, Texas

Numbers 3:5-9
Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 10
Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-21, 24a

Today in her liturgy the Church offers us a respite from Lent in all its purple and penitence, in giving us this great solemnity of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day, the Gloria returns for one celebration until the Vigil of Easter and the triumphant color of white for the purity of the saints made so by Christ’s conquest of sin and death is returned for the moment as we celebrate this solemnity of Saint Joseph, Most Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Foster Father of Jesus, and Patron of the Universal Church. It is more than fitting that we celebrate the ordination to the diaconate of Isaac McCracken on this great solemnity of the Church’s calendar that we might enter more deeply into the mystery of the Church’s call to holiness.

Saint Joseph is described by the Church as the Most Chaste Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The pure chastity of Saint Joseph is especially an example for each Catholic responsible to be chaste but in a distinct way those of us ordained who have made public promises of celibate chastity and are accountable to give witness to Christ by living the celibate and chaste life for the sake of the Kingdom. The chastity of Saint Joseph is marked by his wholeness and his maturity. He is a man of complete integrity. Saint Joseph is not like a puzzle with a piece missing. He is not incomplete as a person in need of a false dependence upon others insecurely seeking validation from others. He lives an integrity of life that confounds the world that is possessed by its passions and carnal drives of the human condition: fear, anger, and physical pleasure. His purity of heart is so directly focused upon God that he can let go of his own expectations around marriage and live with obedience and attentiveness to God’s Word made flesh and His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This integrity of life lived by Saint Joseph shows us that he is not simply a bystander to the mystery of the early life of the Christ Child and His Mother in Bethlehem, through Egypt, and ultimately Nazareth. He is an essential part of the family as the husband of Mary who by God’s command has accepted her as his wife and taken her into his home. The paternal care that he offers Jesus is also most authentic because it purely flows from his very real marital and chaste love that he shares with Mary.

Pope Francis, writing in his Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde, observes, “Joseph is traditionally called a “most chaste” father. That title is not simply a sign of affection, but the summation of an attitude that is the opposite of possessiveness. Chastity is freedom from possessiveness in every sphere of one’s life. Only when love is chaste is it truly love. A possessive love ultimately becomes dangerous: it imprisons, constricts, and makes for misery. God Himself loved humanity with a chaste love; He left us free even to go astray and set ourselves against Him. The logic of love is always the logic of freedom, and Joseph knew how to love with extraordinary freedom. He never made himself the center of things. He did not think of himself but focused instead on the lives of Mary and Jesus.”

Today, at his ordination to the diaconate, Isaac freely promises himself to live a life of celibate chastity for the sake of the Kingdom of God. His celibacy is directed to his spousal love for the Church and for the Church’s children for whom he will one day care for as a father in the priesthood. His celibate chastity is generative but not possessive of the People of God as his own. Fatherhood in the spiritual order also flows from the spousal commitment the ordained man makes in freedom to God and the Church. His promise is free, and his life is free. His freedom is an act of love born of faith, even more than it is a solemn duty bound by law because he makes this promise in imitation of Christ the Servant who came to serve and not to be served. He is to live by grace. As Saint Paul reminded us in our second reading, “It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.”

An essential characteristic of Saint Joseph not to be overlooked is his role and identity as a worker. He works in his service of providing for the Blessed Virgin Mary and for the Christ Child. He teaches the boy Jesus his trade as a carpenter. At the heart of the dignity of his labor and of all labor is his service and dedicated use of his gifts to the provision of security for the family and community and for the glory of God. This dedicated labor is always present with the mystical silence of Saint Joseph who in his righteousness meditated upon the Word and never became introspective or unavailable to those in need. Saint Joseph is a man fit for service. In this way he is an example and intercessor for Isaac and for each of us ordained to serve.

The Church holds the expectation that a man first be ordained to the diaconate before he is to be ordained a priest as a reminder and visible protection that the ordained priesthood that Christ establishes for His new and eternal Covenant should never be mistreated to devolve into a type of self-absorbed bachelorism. Before a man is to be ordained a priest and configured to Christ, the Head and Shepherd of the Church, he must first be configured to Christ the Servant. Priesthood must always first be a service replete with the washing of feet. The dignity of the Eucharist requires a priesthood vibrant with the same charity of Christ who came to serve and not to be served. The diaconate is how Christ enkindles this charity in the heart of a man whom He is preparing for priestly ordination.

Isaac, your ordination tonight on this Solemnity offers you an example and an intercessor for integrity of life, selfless service, and pure love. Scripture and tradition reveal to us that Saint Joseph was a righteous man. His righteousness was born of his fidelity to and knowledge of the Word of God — the Word revealed in the Law and in the Prophets — and most especially in the Word Incarnate — Jesus Christ, true God and true man.

Finally, Saint Joseph’s hesitancy to accept Mary into his home was because of his awareness of his own unworthiness, not because of his suspicion of Mary’s worthiness. God quelled his fears through His message delivered by the angel. Likewise, bring your own doubts and fears about worthiness to God as you have brought them to God throughout your years of formation and education with your confidence given as a grace from God. Seek God’s will and not your own. Trust God just as Saint Joseph did.